In such a universe as ours, life appears to have evolved primarily as a way to enable suffering. After all, a rock or fireball or chunk of ice doesn't have nerve endings with which to feel pain or injury. So how could an evil universe truly fulfill its ultimate potential, without life?

And intelligence? Think about it. Which has more total capacity for pain and suffering, both in terms of quantity and quality, between a frog and a human being?

So you see, in order to obtain the maximum scale and variety of suffering possible, an evil universe requires intelligent life.

But don't take my word for it: go to college and learn some physics to see the truth for yourself. Learn about thermodynamics and entropy. Then start pondering the implications...

Therefore, as the bad guys have more than their fair share of luck, the rest of us have no choice but to try to be smarter and work harder. It's that simple.

Of course, you can always decide to join the dark side instead. Which many folks do. Because in many ways it's just easier and more straightforward. For instance, good guys by definition have to spend lots more time and effort determining the real truth behind various mysteries and uncertainties than evil people do. Under most circumstances evil neither needs or wants truth or justice. Or patience, or deliberation, or debate. Evil usually just finds a notion or scapegoat it prefers and pushes it. Regardless of any and all evidence to the contrary.

As cliché as it sounds, it turns out our only real defenses against evil include love, knowledge, truth, tolerance, cooperation, compromise, patience-- things like that.

That's why those of evil intent often encourage or emphasize instead hate, lies, ignorance, intolerance, divisiveness, conflict, decisiveness, speed, etc. Often while at the same time claiming all their evil works can actually be viewed as good things-- if you look at them from a very carefully sculpted perspective...

Deception, secrecy, censorship. Coercion. Extremism. State-sponsored terrorism. Propaganda. Tools designed for evil, by evil. Such tools get the most public support if you make them sound like something else: like "national security", "patriotism", "world policing", "preemptive strikes", etc.

As evil or its potential is a part of everyone, and some eventually come to devote themselves to it wholeheartedly, you might say evil was the original religion. I'm talking way back in prehistoric days here.

At the heart of evil seems to be the ultimate ego-trip-- at least where you're describing one evil individual versus everyone else. For most of the worst evil deeds basically consist of immensely selfish or self-serving acts. Behavior which often goes beyond simply ignoring the welfare of others, to outright predation upon them.

Stepping up from the individual to the group level in evil takes you to primitive tribalism. Which in these days of nation-states and broadcast media goes by the monikers of nationalism or patriotism or religion.

So what's so bad about tribalism, either ancient or modern? Well, basically it's just an 'us versus them' rallying cry, which claims 'we' are somehow better or more deserving of good things than 'them'. Often such tribalism goes so far as to claim 'they' are so unlike us somehow that they must be exterminated or at least impoverished or enslaved and made to suffer in whatever ways are most convenient or satisfying to 'us'. Tribalism usually invokes God along the way too, saying that 'we' are God's chosen, while 'they' are not.

Check out the history books. Hitler and Stalin and other mass murderers exploited nationalism and patriotism to the hilt to take control of their respective countries.

People of better intent have tried time and time again to oppose this original religious form with new, 'wider' ones meant to help unify and mobilize the masses against the multitudes of divisive devils in their midst.

But time and time again evil has found ways to defeat these new religions: to basically turn them inside out. Effectively make them simply new branches of the original 'sin' religion.

For an example of such demonic possession, you have only to look at today's Islam and Christianity. Somehow the very mainstream of both are in the process of becoming radicalized, extremist, and polarized in their views.

By the luck of the coin toss today's Christianity boasts dominance over some of the richest nations on Earth while Islam commands some of the poorest. But in many ways large factions of the population in both worlds are interchangeable in how they think and act upon many issues.

Judaism seems to be going through the same death throes as the other two, if the recent decades of Israel and the Palestinians offer any insight into its status.

Once a religion has been usurped by evil it never seems to recover. So men and women of good will invent another new one, and start the process again.

For instance, from what I've seen of quotations attributed to Jesus in the bible, he surely never meant to create the sort of Christian mainstream beliefs which exist today in places like America.

But again, don't take my word for it. Actually read the words of Jesus and compare his apparent intent to what the most prominent American Christian leaders are saying and doing these days. Yikes!

So why have any religion at all? Because many people seem to need or want some higher power than themselves or their governments to exist-- some ultimate judge of right and wrong to dispel all the uncertainties of life.

So basically religion is a fairy tale for adults which tells us some magical ultimate parental entity will in the end see that we are rewarded for our good deeds while others are punished for their bad ones-- even if the very reverse of this seems to frequently happen in the real world while we're alive.

Such a fairy tale might not be so bad in and of itself. If the devils amongst us didn't exploit it for their own ends. Unfortunately for us all, that's exactly what happens. And many of us consider the con men plying this trade just as magical as the idealized parent figure in the tale itself. That's why cult leaders can get dozens or hundreds of people to commit suicide en mass. Or various TV evangelists can get millions of average income folks to donate monies they can ill afford to maintain the lavish lifestyles (and sometimes outright debauchery) of the evangelists themselves.

But here we are now with a few thousand years of recorded history behind us, despite the ongoing rampage of evil devouring one religion after another throughout the ages. Heck, we've even made some progress in creature comforts and education along the way! So maybe letting all this evil keep its near stranglehold on us isn't so bad after all. Right?

Well, if you feel that way I guess we'll just ignore the horrific toll of suffering and death inflicted on hundreds of millions or more (mostly women and children) over all those millennia, and which continues on up through today. Yep. Just erase it from our minds.

After all, most of us reading this are getting by reasonably OK. Right? Life's all about self-interest, many would say.

So here's some self-interest for you: A middle-class life flies in the face of evil. Evil hates it. It'll do whatever it can to wipe middle-class living standards from the face of the Earth.

Why? Because anyone with a middle-class lifestyle can usually protect themselves better from evil than poorer folks. At least if they're savvy to what's happening, and make the effort. Before it's too late.

I could say history's full of cases where a bunch of middle-class folks failed to take heed of circumstances and were thrown into poverty by evil forces. But that would be a lie.

Because the middle-class is a relatively new phenomenon on the world stage. It has little history to examine for lessons about the future.

No, the average person's normal condition throughout the ages consisted of being an impoverished and horribly ignorant peasant-- or servant or slave to a tiny population of rich folks.

A sizable middle-class never existed anywhere until various technology advances forced the wealthy to share more of the spoils with labor in order to get at the benefits themselves.

So ever since then evil has been seeking ways to turn back the middle-class tide. To take humanity back to its normal historic condition of being mostly subservient to the will of a small number of rich elite.

And to be completely honest, many otherwise decent middle-class folks often help evil progress towards this goal without even realizing it. For over uncounted generations we were basically bred to be subservient to a ruling class. Over and over again most rebels and activists against the established order were killed, imprisoned, exiled, crippled, or worse throughout history. Thus have the powers-that-be successfully bred us like cattle, for the most part. Just like humanity did dogs: regularly rid yourself of all the ones that don't mindlessly obey, and over a matter of generations that leaves you with a pretty docile and easily manipulated population. That's why many of us are so easily spellbound by political leaders and/or other celebrities today. It's in our DNA.

Heck, even those of us who fully understand this can be easily lulled into forgetting it again, and giving in to our natural tendency to be led around by the nose.

Note that I am NOT equating being rich with being evil. These are separate things for the most part. Although it is true that business operations with an evil slant tend to be more apparently successful and profitable than those without. For example, a factory which doesn't do anything to treat its toxic wastes spilled into nearby streams will typically face lower costs of operations and thus enjoy higher profit margins than one which does try to redeem such wastes. Plus, as luck sides more often with evil ventures than good-natured ones in general, the universe basically rewards and encourages evil works more than it does good. So simple real world experiences will often tend to push wealth-builders into darker directions if they let them. The proverbial 'slippery slope' can be a surprisingly common feature in the terrain of our lives. And the rich are likely faced with far more temptations towards dark deeds than the poor-- at least in terms of how many people will be deeply and adversely affected by the consequences of their actions.

Also don't forget the vulnerability to celebrity-worship encoded in our genes. The rich too share this weakness, only in their case it may make them enjoy being on top of the heap a little too much-- with behavior extremes to match. For if the universe seems to appoint you to a very important spot in society, you very easily come to believe that you were more deserving of such status than others-- no matter what your true merits or failings-- and thereby find yourself on the precipice of that highly lubricated slope...

It may well be that those of the rich who avoid the worst of their own temptations do so only by virtue of close families and friends of diverse backgrounds, quality educations, wonderful mentors, personal experience of more adverse conditions earlier on, intense self-examination, or sheer Hippocratic oath-like determination against harming others...

So anyway, all things considered, it's pretty remarkable that a middle-class ever developed at all, much less lasted for a matter of centuries.

Unfortunately, the size and quality of the middle-class among global humanity may be reaching its peak, and soon be headed towards negligible numbers again during the 21st century-- perhaps even within our own lifetimes.

For further technological advances are now one-by-one removing the limitations which before forced the rich to share their spoils with those who did the majority of toil required to produce them.

But once again, don't take my word for it. Do your own research into the matter.

So what can be done to insure the survival and even possible further expansion of the middle-class worldwide, into the future?

Certain intellectual property reforms would likely help. As would global government subsidies for basic opportunity-related technologies and knowledge. For instance, some form of basic internet access should be provided for everyone regardless of income level. Of course, providing such access would by necessity include some sort of reasonably reliable electricity supply and telecommunications capacity. Local power generation and wireless telecommunications technologies might best serve those far removed from the centers of developed civilization. Strategically placed and maintained satellites or high altitude solar-powered un-piloted planes or airships could fill in some gaps.

Note that by their mere existence a decent telecomm link and electrical supply would also help support or develop other local life-nurturing and development projects.

True and rigorously enforced separation of church and state-- as well as business and state-- appear vital. Governments predominately in the service of either religion or business make for a slippery slope towards theocracy or fascism, respectively: mistakes already experienced before by humanity, to its immense regret.

Truly objective and scientifically based credibility ratings for all major news and information sources-- including a special focus on commercial advertising and educational texts-- would likely help keep society away from the precipice as well. Rigorous regulation of such credibility rating services might also help prevent low quality and even dangerously wrong information from being dispensed to the public.

The further our technology advances, the more harm outright lies and deceptions-- as well as merely misleading information-- can cause worldwide.

For more possibilities regarding opportunities for bettering the world (as well as details on those already mentioned) please CLICK HERE.